Perumal Murugan from Chennai secures spot on JCB Prize for Literature 2023 Longlist for the third time

 

• The winning author and translator will be awarded Rs 25 lakh and Rs 10 lakh, respectively
• The Longlist includes three debut novelists, and four translations from Bengali, Hindi and Tamil

 

Chennai, 4^th September, 2023: One of the most coveted fiction awards in India, the JCB Prize for Literature, unveils the Longlist of its sixth edition. A distinguished Jury from a diverse range of backgrounds, chaired by author and translator, Srinath Perur, bring forth a Longlist that promises to captivate literary enthusiasts across the world.

The Jury read entries from across the country- with authors hailing from 24 cities, writing in eight languages, including English. Four translations from Bengali, Hindi and Tamil make it to the Longlist along with six books which are originally written in English. Authors, Manoranjan Byapari and Perumal Murugan whose works have been longlisted twice for the Prize, return to the list for a third time, and author Tanuj Solanki joins the list for the second time. Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar, who was longlisted for the Prize as an author in the past, returns to the list as a translator for Manoj Rupda’s Hindi book, this is Hansda’s first ever translation of a book.

Geet Chaturvedi’s debut book joins the list this year, the translation, by Anita Gopalan is the translator’s first foray into fiction translation. Tejaswini Apte-Rahm’s debut English book is also part of the Longlist along with Bikram Sharma’s writing debut.

The Jury for the 2023 edition of the Prize included Srinath Perur (Chair), author and translator; Mahesh Dattani, playwright and stage director; Somak Ghoshal, author, critic and learning designer, Kavery Nambisan, author and surgeon; and Swati Thiyagarajan, conservation journalist and filmmaker.

The Longlist for 2023 includes-

The Secret of More by Tejaswini Apte-Rahm (Aleph Book Company, 2022)

The Nemesis by Manoranjan Byapari, translated from the Bengali by V. Ramaswamy (Westland Books, 2023)

The East Indian by Brinda Charry (HarperCollins Publishers India, 2023)

Simsim by Geet Chaturvedi, translated from the Hindi by Anita Gopalan (Penguin Random House India, 2023)

Fire Bird by Perumal Murugan, translated from the Tamil by Janani Kannan (Penguin Random House India, 2023)

Everything the Light Touches by Janice Pariat (HarperCollins Publishers India, 2022)

Mansur by Vikramajit Ram (Pan Macmillan India, 2022)

I Named my Sister Silence by Manoj Rupda, translated from the Hindi by Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar (Westland Books, 2023)

The Colony of Shadows by Bikram Sharma (Hachette Books, 2022)

Manjhi’s Mayhem by Tanuj Solanki (Penguin Random House India, 2022)

While talking about the 2023 Longlist and the encompassing reading journey, Srinath Perur, Jury Chair, shared, “The set of books entered for the prize this year was remarkably strong and varied. The jury read the entries over the last few months, meeting online every couple of weeks. We read for freshness, relevance, accomplishment and ambition among other things. And we read for pleasure. We were often in agreement, and when we were not, it was instructive to consider a book from other perspectives. Given the quality of the entries, it felt like we could easily have come up with a solid second Longlist. But as it stands, every member of the jury found something special about these ten books. Taken together they represent a fine sampling of the breadth and quality of Indian novels published in English over the last year”.

Reflecting on the journey of the JCB Prize for Literature, Mita Kapur, Literary Director, JCB Prize for Literature, expressed, “The Longlisted books for 2023 are truly a dynamic reflection of Indian fiction at its finest. It is a privilege to celebrate these ten books that make our lives richer, expansive; that explore depths of our understanding of how we navigate ourselves through the unique, the mundane, the ugly, the beautiful, and the wonderful moments of human existence. This year's Longlist is bound to captivate, surprise and delight every reader who picks it up.”

The JCB Prize for Literature annually honours an exceptional fictional book by an Indian author. The Shortlist of five titles will be unveiled on the 20^th October. The winner will be declared on 18^th November and will receive a cash prize of Rs 25-lakh. If the winning work is a translation, the translator will receive an additional cash prize of Rs 10 lakh. Furthermore, each of the five shortlisted authors will receive Rs 1 lakh; if the shortlisted work is a translation, the translator will receive Rs 50,000

What the Jury said:

 

 

 

 

 

 

ABOUT THE JCB PRIZE FOR LITERATURE

The JCB Prize for Literature was set up in 2018 to enhance the prestige of literary achievement in India and create greater visibility for contemporary Indian writing. The prize encourages translations and aims to introduce new audiences to works of Indian literature written in languages other than their own. It is funded by JCB and administered by the JCB Literature Foundation.

For information about the Prize, please visit: www.thejcbprize.org. For updates, look for @thejcbprize on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. 

For press queries and interview requests contact: JCBLiteratureFoundation@mslgroup.com

KEY 2023 DATES

Announcement of Longlist: 2^nd September 2023

Announcement of Shortlist: 20^th October 2023

Awards ceremony: 18^th November 2023

2022 WINNER

The Paradise of Food by Khalid Jawed, translated from the Urdu by Baran Farooqi

2021 WINNER

Delhi: A Soliloquy by M.Mukundan, translated from the Malayalam by Fathima E.V. & Nandakumar K.

2020 WINNER

Moustache by S. Hareesh, translated from the Malayalam by Jayasree Kalathil

2019 WINNER

The Far Field by Madhuri Vijay

2018 WINNER

Jasmine Days by Benyamin, translated from the Malayalam by Shahnaz Habib

ABOUT THE JURY

Srinath Perur (Chair) is the author of the travelogue If It’s Monday It Must Be Madurai. He has translated from Kannada the novel Ghachar Ghochar (by Vivek Shanbhag) and the memoir This Life at Play (by Girish Karnad). He writes on a variety of subjects including science, travel and books.

Mahesh Dattani is a playwright, stage director, and mentor. His works as a playwright have been translated and performed in many languages across India and abroad. For his anthology Final Solutions and Other Plays, Dattani received the Sahitya Akademi Award. His works as a director include an adaptation in English of Tagore’s story Chokher Bali for Barnard College, Columbia University, an adaptation of Lorca’s Blood Wedding for ICS Theatre, New Jersey, Snapshots of a Fervid Sunrise, written and directed by him. Recently he worked with This is Not a Theatre Company in New York to write and direct an audio piece, A Little Drape of Heaven, which was picked by The New York Times as among the top five things to catch in New York.His film work as a writer and director includes Mango Souffle (2000) and Morning Raga (2003). He is the Artistic Director of Playpen Performing Arts Trust, a group dedicated to mentoring and producing new works for the theatre. He lives in Mumbai, India.

Somak Ghoshal has worked in publishing and media with major Indian organizations for over 15 years, especially as a critic and book publisher. His work has appeared in Mint, HuffPost, The Telegraph, Open, The Hindu, The Voice of Fashion, Mekong Review, Index on Censorship, CNN Style, and other Indian and international publications. He is the author of two books for young readers, published by Penguin Random House and Pratham Books respectively. Currently, he works as a learning designer with an ed-tech organization.

Kavery Nambisan started her writing career with children’s books. Her adult novels include The Scent of Pepper, A Story that Must Not be Told and A Town Like Ours. Her non-fiction book A Luxury Called Health is her most recent work. She also contributes articles and essays to national newspapers and international anthologies. She went to Iowa University on an international writing fellowship; to Pakistan on a Fullbright and Iowa sponsored literary progamme; to Shanghai as a writer in residence with her late husband and poet Vijay Nambisan. Kavery graduated in medicine from St John’s Medical College, Bangalore, did her higher surgical training in the UK and obtained the Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons, London. She has since built her career working as a surgeon in rural India including parts of Bihar, UP and Tamil Nadu and Karnataka. Kavery Nambisan lives and works in Kodagu.

Swati Thiyagarajan is a multi-award-winning conservation journalist who pioneered conservation and wildlife reporting for television in India. She is the former Environment Editor of NDTV and helmed and created one of their flagship shows Born Wild. She authored the book Born Wild, Journeys into the wild hearts of India and Africa. She is also a documentary filmmaker, her film The Animal Communicator has racked up over 8 million views on YouTube since 2012 and is available on Amazon Prime in the US and UK. She was the Associate Producer on the Academy Award winning My Octopus Teacher and is at present working for the Sea Change Project in Cape Town.